Donate today and help bring the River Styx to Life

I believe the job of the artist is to tell big stories. Across our collective history, wordsmiths, muralists, actors and sculptors all carry the big stories and themes of humanity forward like a living chain. In that spirit, I am here today to ask you to help build another link in the story of Styx.

Ancient Mesopotamia called the eternal waters the Hubur, in Japan they use the word Sanzu and Hindu’s holy river of death is called the Vaitarna. However you may know it, this ‘river to the world of the dead’ has hundreds of names across many cultures, because it represents a universal journey.

The journey that we all must eventually take has become a symbol etched into language and history and I hope to give that symbol a breath of new life. In a world that often feels on fire, my installation, Styx and Stones, represent both a shared obstacle and the way to overcome it. A sprawling river of fire with a beautifully eerie footbridge made of living lava, Styx and Stones is an immersive installation that hopes to capture the myth and bring it to life this summer.

To create the illusion of a river of fire, this installation uses air, billowing fabrics, addressable LEDs, a soundscape of roaring flames and other sculptural elements to immerse participants into the mythological. The scale we are aiming for stretches upwards of 80 feet long, presenting and pressuring us to engage with a giant fiery obstacle, while also guiding us towards a bridge at the river’s midpoint. The bridge, a fully functional wooden footbridge, is carved to look like flowing lava and pulses with lights to capture the feel of magma.

It is our goal that Styx and Stones reminds everyone who sees it about their own journey as well as the journey everyone has taken before us. It is rare to be able to practice an ancient routine and engage with something eternal, so it is our hope that by witnessing and choosing to cross, we are better equipped when our time eventually comes.

Styx and Stones is a way to honor death and grief in the present moment, and with your help, we can make it a reality.